organizes knockings protest rallies across the country on saturday. what are they? guest: when we heard donald trump was planning a military birthday parade for himself that would cost $100 million of taxpayer dollars, my money, everybody who is watching your taxpayer dollars, we were shocked. it's not the kind of thing we've seen in america and more the kind of thing you'd see in north korea. it's really dangerous. what we know from the experts and authoritarianism, would be atore theriens -- would be authit this. and we didn't want counterprotests of that parade and don't want to give him the narrative device we're protesting the military but instead we said look, donald trump can have downtown d.c. for his birthday parade but we'll protest powerfully everywhere else. on saturday there will be more

than 2,000 locally led peaceful protests for knockings day, not just in the big city centers but places like homer, alaska, and win bego, and some small towns and cities across america saying we don't do kings across america. host: what is your prediction for how many will turn out? guest: it's not our first rodeo, earlier on april 5 we held the then single largest day of peaceful -- >> good morning, everyone. my name is neera, and president and c.e.o. for the center of american progress action fund. today we are truly thrilled to have governor walz speak at the center for american progress as part of our path forward series.

and he's brought so much hope and energy and enthusiasm to people across the country. i also want to say we're in an incredibly serious moment as well and we want to be clear about where we are as we discuss the path forward. to i do want to acknowledge that yesterday we witnessed federal agents tackle a united states senator to the ground for asking a question. he was tackled and then shackled, essentially, on the ground, on his knees. and that's truly the hallmark of an authoritarian government, full stop. senator alex padilla, duly elected by millions of californians went to a press conference with a cabinet secretary. the cabinet secretary of which he has oversight

responsibilities for, asked a question, and then basically was pushed to the ground. and that, to me, is a sense that we are crossing the rubicon. and this obviously comes on top of the fact that the president has deployed the national guard over the objections of the governor of california to the streets of los angeles and even on top of that, he's now deployed marines, marines for soldiers of war on the streets of los angeles. so this is a crucial moment, a crucial moment for all of us as a country. and that is why it is so crucial that we have leaders, leaders like governor walz. and i want to just acknowledge that in the months after the election, there were lead hers who were stepping back, sitting

down, and governor walz has stood up every minute to protect our democracy and call out the authoritarian reach of this administration and to articulate specifically how they are hurting so many people. that's why his leadership is so crucial. i am incredibly honored that he is here today in this moment to speak not just about his view of the country and how we move forward as a country, but also to acknowledge where we are and what leadership is called for today. he has been doing that by going around the country not just talking to democrats but going to town halls in republican districts and red states and speaking truth to power.

that is how we build for the future and take this moment where democracy is in breach and build a united front for this country. i'm incredibly honored that he's here today to speak about where we are and his vision for the future. governor walz. [applause] neera: thank you again for being here. i guess i would just ask you, where do you see -- how do you see where we are? what do you think of these events of the last week? governor walz: well, good to have you all here. some of you are runners, you might know the feeling, the day after the marathon, you feel really great and you're about

ready to die. yesterday i spent eight hours in front of the house oversight committee, which needs to be a netflix series, by the way. it's the most bizarre group of folks together in the interaction. the irony of it was, and again, trying to find humor in moments of real tragedy is something, and it was a hearing on sanctuary states and i was there with governor hoch eland pritzker and -- governor hochul and governor pritzker and we were treating people like human beings and it was that frame and during that hearing i heard about senator padilla. i've been saying it and i'm not prone to hyperbole but am prone to popping off a little bit, i know that. but i've got to see the facts and do all this. i believed all along we were

marching towards authoritarianism and people were telling me in september i was overreacting but i said the road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you that you're overreacting. this has been the steady state and predictable. we're in a dangerous time and seeing it manifest itself. the institutions appear to somewhat beholding, certainly not the congress, the courts are holding better than i might have anticipated, to be honest with you, even being an optimist, and i think as neara said, whether they are elected officials at the national level or below that, but regular folks starting to stand up and make the case. but we are whistling past the grave yard that this will get

worse before it gets better. and i remain a internal optimist because i came through the fire of supervising the high school lunch room. seeing governor newsom stand up is hopeful. neera: you've experienced in the national guard a unique set of experiences and i would ask you what do you think of the national guard being deployed and marines being deployed in los angeles? governor walz: i spent 24 years doing this, i as an enlisted soldiers was deployed. the national guard has dual roles, the state role and federal role. the governors are in charge of you when they put you in title 32 status and i've been mobilized for that for flood

duties, tornado cleanup, security issues and mobilized under title 10 to do missions overseas, which is a normal process in this. but i also had an experience when i was in congress, i served on the armed services committee, and i was concerned during the first wars in iraq and afghanistan that the national guard was just being called up and used with however with little coordination with the state. when you take a national guard unit, it means they're not there for the things you would use them at home. you need to think about it and coordinate it. so as a member of congress, i helped pass and create what was called the council of governors by law and 10 governors appointed by law by the president five democrats and five republicans who worked with the department of defense and worked with fema and the administration and organized how the services would correlate.

and then later i became governor and was the co-chair of the thing i created. i looked like a genius, but trust me it was not. it was not, forrest gump. and so i served in that and i worked with it under putting it in when president biden -- excuse me, president obama was there, was appointed, you know, to it by president trump the first time he was president. and president biden had me as co-chair and president trump fired me the beginning of the year. but understanding how this works and seeing as they go to historical reference points where l.b.j. used it in 1965 or whatever, there's noing in to how this is being used here, no request locally, no coordination locally, a federalization of the guard. and the thing is about the

guard, they can be used civilly inside the states without violating a posse comatitus and some are tankers and some are supply tankers and you use them in emergencies and to expect them to carry this out is a very dangerous situation for them and can be for the public if the coordination is not good. i just have to tell you, we can get into it but the idea of federal troops on there, they didn't invoke the insurrection act, by the way. and i don't know why they didn't, actually. and by the way, george bush in katrina used the insurrection act correctly in katrina, probably debatable, i guess, but to try -- in new orleans, and then there was a fear that he

was creepingly going to just continue to use it, so there was a pushback in congress and myself and tom davis, the republican congressman from virginia reinstituted that and put the insurrection act back in. it's a dangerous time. it's an inappropriate use. i saw the courts put a stay on it and the appeals courts overturned it. just unprecedented, dangerous, according to local officials who know best, totally unnecessary other than a provocative move. neera: what do you think the people should do? governor walz: people in general? neera: the public, all of us, the leaders. governor walz: stay informed, i'm not telling you anything, not life coaching or anything, but don't be doom scrolling through tiktok, that's not helpful at this point in time, although all of mine is about

dogs so it is careful in that regard, the algorithm is working. i think continue to speak up. the reason i'm so concerned, the inability of the legislative branch, article 1 of the constitution to take any of their authority and to capitulate is stunning to me. why would you get elected if you didn't do that, maybe you could see this gross overreach, but what i think is important was seeing people speak up. some of you saw that steady if 3.5% of the population speaks up, you can see change or whatever. i felt it out there the past few months. i started going to the republican districts after i saw the republican leader tell them don't go, don't do these town halls because you'd have to defend cuts to medicare and cuts to social security and you'll have these nasty clips that will be out there. that offended me on many levels and offended me as a former member of congress because i stood in those town halls in the summer of 2010 when the a.c.a. was being debated and just got

hammered. but i was proud to stand there because i was going to support the a.c.aan it. i think these town halls, going into these places, engaging people in nontraditional settings is the way to do it because, look, a lot of democrats showed up for that but a lot of independents showed up and some republicans. i did a town hall with baito -- beto o'rourke, a huge crowd and some that showed up were anti-vaxers. i reminded him we had a measles outbreak and we had some dialogue and he said i want to talk to the congressman about this and glad you came to do it. he didn't support me and was there for the same thing. i think there's a movement, the public discourse and idea of free speech and the idea of petitioning your government, they're trying to basically criminalize that, you know. you've seen the president say it, if you come and protest

this, there will be bad things happen to you. so i am encouraging people to do that, to speak out and go into the lane you think you need to be in. neera: you're speaking at a no kings event tomorrow? governor walz: i am in st. paul. neera: might want to say what a no kings event is. governor walz: if you have nothing to do for eight hours, watch that hearing yesterday. but it got tied into billionaires in china funding this or whatever, and i'm like these are people in st. paul that like to do protests and what they do and are feeling it and organizing it. going and making that case, i think it is a good counter because i'm just going to say it as someone who is proud of military service, understand the importance of it but understand they serve us. and whenever i come out here, i

take great joy in running my mall route down around the monuments and whatever, and it was horrific down there today, looks wrong, feels wrong. i think i'm going to go be with a few thousand folks who kind of have the tradition that there is a separation there that we don't need this and this is not pyongyang on a saturday. i'm just going to confess to it, i may be in trouble or whatever, i never so hoped for rain in my life. so there you go. neera: governor, there's a lot of talk i think about -- you just talked about medicaid cuts and what's happening in reconciliation and there's been a robust sort of debate among the center left about focusing on democracy and at the expense of focusing on impacting real people of tariffs, medicaid

cuts, cuts to the inflation reduction act, how do you see that debate? what's your take on what people on the broad center or left should be doing at this moment? governor walz: i'm the above all people. one thing donald trump can do, he sucks up so much oxygen, there's not a single person or event that can get that type of coverage. i'm of the belief we need people in all the lanes, whether they're doing large podcasts or rallies like persony -- like bernie, i don't understand the calculation -- yes, the economy is horrible. and did you see -- this is amazing and i'm sure the trump supporters once again are going to show the wisdom and vision that their president has because he said, did you know there are immigrants here undocumented who have been working really hard on

farms, and they're doing the work and if they don't do that work, it's hurting our farms. so he's going to suspend that and maybe in the hospitality space of this. but my take -- yes, we should be talking about that. we should be talking about prices coming down and we should be talking about the situation in ukraine was not over on day one and now we have an expansion incredibly dangerous in the middle east because nothing has been achieved there. but my take on this is how can we then say we're focusing on this and there's basic human rights issues? i've been criticized for continuing to say we need to protect the trans community because they're coming for them. it doesn't weaken the argument that the economy is bad. and look, if that's my lane, then i think we should fill it. if there's another lane that is pushing back and giving

alternatives, that should be filled. and it's one of the reasons why, you know, i think every time they do a press conference we need that press conference. and they try and make it all spooky, those who know their history and things, the british with the cabinet government or whatever, we need to make what the alternative is, which i think we may get to this, all of this is something, but that's all fine and dandy, but people voted for that. now, how do we and what are we not doing, why they didn't vote for us? i would argue that the many weaknesses that donald trump has, the most glaring one is he is incompetent at governing and we have to be competent at governing and deliver policies and improve people's lives in the short run and not just the sugar highs of i'm going to deport your neighbor or whatever it is. we have to show, look, this improved quality of life and made childcare more affordable, this made your schools safer,

this fixed the roads and bridges. i'm a big believer right now it's about competency and compassion being together, everyone needs to fill these lanes with a message. and again, i don't think we choose between our core values, compassion, kindness, everybody being included and highlighting that cutting social security is ridiculous, medicaid is ridiculous and here's the outcome. neera: i'm follow through, you just went through a budget experience and passed things that are solving problems. you touched on this but just to drill down, as you see -- we believe very strongly in opposing what the trump administration is doing but also building an alternative agenda to give people a choice between two visions of change. how do you see that given your experience in minnesota just this week and how would you -- you know, people ask you what we should do going forward, what's

your answer? governor walz: we passed a budget at 2:00 a.m. on tuesday night. our session ended may 19, our regular session. we don't have full time legislators. our fiscal year budget starts july 1 so we were moving towards shutdown, we were moving towards layoff notices, you get into this. but here's the reason for that and the reason i'm optimistic and think it's a better model. minnesota is truly a purple state. i'm superproud we're the only state since 1972 that have voted for a democratic candidate for president, the only one, because where all the rest of you got it wrong, we voted for mondale. we voted for mondale. but we're divide. our legislature always hinges on one or two each way, as governor since 2019, i've had in those six years four of them split and two of them where we had the majority. and i will go to the split one

where we compromise and get a budget done and this one, the house is tied 67-67 and the senate is 34-33 with the one vote majority in there and it means 101-100, friend of man shop, everyone thought they were joe manchin. if you don't get a new dairy barn in this district, i'm shutting you down. it was supercomplicated but here's what happened, we passed a balanced budget that left a surplus on. we looked over the horizon. minnesota budgets bienal budgets and we did the two years after that and looked out at the structural imbalances where there were cost drivers that were increasing too much, we were able to put some curbs on those, democrats cushing

government growth in a responsible manner and to do so, republicans voted for some tax increases which i thought hell would freeze over. now, there were some bad parts of it, we had to compromise because minnesota is a state. top state for health care, mayo clinic, top state. we also believe health care is a human rights and provided it to undocumented people and what ended up happening is we'll shut the government down and not get a single vote and were unified i thought for months and months and months and at the end of the day i said we have to leave children on and any new children coming and we compromised that next year undocumented adults will come on. now, as all of you know, as federal law they'll go to the emergency room and get less care and be more expensive and it's not the right way to go about it but to get that done, we compromised to be able to get that done. the good news is we kept things like paid family medical leave in, child tax credit, universal

meals, 2040 clean energy and didn't have to compromise on any of the others. tough vote, angry, had to compromise with republicans because democratic legislators would not vote for it because of that move. that's part of the process. what i believe is in minnesota, people saw competency in government. they saw us compromising without compromising our values and see things that are improving the economy, improving their lives and making a difference. it feels right now there's a hunger, why we did go into a special session for a couple weeks, pretty normal. legislative leaders come out there, democrats and republicans, praise each other for working together with good intentions, passed a good budget, and now for me, i don't have to see them again until february next year which is a good thing. now we go on. i will say this, i think it's important for democrats, when we did get a one vote majority, you know, it flips back and forth, when we did get a one vote majority in 2022, in the 2023

session we basically passed the new deal and did everything and got rid of our racist flag and created a new flag and cleaned the house and that's something that's been missing when we're in there. it doesn't mean we're disrespecting the republicans but we've been compromising on you and holding the state back because we compromised. we're not holding back anymore and we're going to pass all this stuff. because trust me, donald trump is showing you what happens when they get full control, they'll go as far as they possibly can go. i've been arguing we have to go as far as we possibly can go when we get the chance. neera: let's talk about some of the things you passed in 2022 and were able to hold this year, as people are thinking about cost of living, there are a range of issues that you championed, childcare, paid parental leave, other issues. just give us a sense of that. governor walz: the one i'm most proud of is child tax credit. minnesota has been a top five state for the lowest childhood

poverty, but you know during covid and the things the biden-harris administration did they extended the child tax credit which we saw the biggest drop in childhood policy in history happen during those years because we put money back in people's pockets. in minnesota we passed the most expansive one in the country, $1750, no limit on the number of children, and we passed it so you can get it ahead of time and you don't have to file taxes at the end because many of these people don't. what we saw is about a 1/3 reduction in childhood poverty. we'll have the lowest rate. we coupled that with universal breakfast and lunches at school, which, by the way, after doing that, and expanding early childhood education and scholarships, we just saw this year when we announced our graduation numbers, the highest graduation rates we've seen in state history. isn't that amazing if kids are stable, they have food, and, and we're now a top state for business. this is where democrats need to,

we take care of people but it's ok to take care of people to help grow the economy. it's ok for people and businesses to be successful. just pay your taxes. pay your fair share and i'm proud of this, minnesota is a high tax state. you know what minnesota ranks first in taxes, the most progressive and fairest state, which means if you make less than $75,000, you will pay less taxes than you would in florida because they hide it and tax you for clothes and everything else. it's more expensive. so we do have a progressive tax rate, and what's that done is been able to grow the economy and now we're a top 10 state for business development. we're fifth, i believe, in fortune 500 per capita that are there because we created a headquarters economy that people know. guess why people move to places, not because it's 40 below sometimes, which it is, they move there because they've got good schools, safe neighborhoods, they've got now 12 weeks paid family medical leave and earned sick time and

we're a state we set 20/40 as carbon-free electricity generating and everybody says we'll not make it, that's right, we'll make it in 2035 because it moved up. think about that. when we talk about clean energy -- the problem we have with issues like homelessness and clean energy, we set aspirational goals but no one truly believes we're going to get there. now all of a sudden we talk about we're going to have 100% carbon-free energy electricity in minnesota. now it's 10 years away where it seems reasonable to be able to do that. we did the same thing around homelessness and i think we'll become the fourth state or fifth state that will totally eliminate veterans homelessness and down to 211 veterans, i think, we know who they are, we tracked them. but there's a model for homelessness, all 211 of those have a name and we know who they are.

and veterans, the advantage with veterans homelessness is they come with services and get health care and a stipend for housing potentially and all that. if you apply that then to others, you start to tackle that issue. and again, we're making -- none of these things are cad value and -- are radical and it's interesting to me the business community is like oh, we have a healthy, happy, well-educated population. that works better. neera: we're going to go to audience questions in a minute. i am going to ask my last question before we go to the audience, just to reaffirm, if you have a question, and let's really focus on a question, and it should be brief to get more people in and you should identify yourself. my last question will be -- i don't think we can leave this discussion without asking probably about what happened last night, a very eventful day on many scores, but the fact we

have israel striking iran, and you know, escalatory would be an understatement. what are your thoughts on that? governor walz: deeply concerned. i think we know anything in the middle east. look, i know a lot of folks here and across the country, the situation in gaza is intolerable and it became a central focus in the campaign and i would say rightfully so, human rights issues, how we're going to try and attempt to get a two-state solution where we can allow folks to live peacefully and co-exist and have their own self-determination. the issue now in the spreading of this -- i have to be candid about this. i voted for the iran nuclear deal. it was one of the most well -- and i said, just to be clear, with the russian ambassador, with the french ambassador, you know, with our negotiators,

everybody was there to bring about the capacity to stop iran's nuclear capacity, but in a way that was not so punitive that we would hamper some of their economic growth. i truly worry now. i'm sure there's great strategic thinkers in the trump administration that have now said how is this going to, you know -- a tweet from the president today said, i told them, i told them they should have done something and now here we are. yeah, here we are with the middle east back on fire in a way that's now expanded with iran who has to retaliate, in their mind, i'm sure. . who is the voice in the world that can negotiate an agreement. who holds the authority to do that? we are not seen as a neutral actor. maybe we never were. i think there is always a lot of people that say you always lean

one way. i think there was an attempt to somewhat of the arbitrator. we saw president carter do it with begin and sadat. we had wins which were mutually beneficial both ways. now i ask who that is. consistently over and over again we are going to have to face the reality it might be the chinese. and that goes against everything they say they are trying to do in terms of the balance of power. i just would have to say my heart goes out for this. ukraine continues to go on. gaza continues to be a you humanitarian disaster. now it's expanded further. neera: i definitely rest easy knowing pete hegseth is the secretary of defense. gov. walz: he's a minnesotan? we can't pick the middle. prince, hegseth. neera: questions. anyone with questions? over there. identify yourself.

>> rachel, i work for ocean conservancy. just wanted to say thank you for always finding common ground and continuing to speak across the aisle. it's something that our organization does, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. as we watch votes get taken that are taking funding away, undoing the i.r.a., that sort of thing, my question is you how do we continue to find that common ground? how do we continue to have those conversations because i think the ability to make progress is broken down when that ceases to happen. gov. walz: great question. i consider -- my time in congress i represented a very rural district. had one other democrat since 1892. i find myself being one of the most 10 bipartisan members of congress. hi my values, but i was trying to make sure where we found common ground.

i do, i'm very proud in man minnesota through the negotiations behind closed doors there was a cordialness hi not experienced for quite a few years. yesterday there was glimpse of it. there was in the committee i was in, which is -- i said the one thing that came out of yesterday i no longer fear going to hell. i have seen it. i have seen t that's it. that's my personal hell. i'm going to be there. there were republican members that we worked together there and said, i have differents with the governor. will i talk about those behind closed doors. i was like, holy smokes. the others didn't adhere to that. but i do think we have to model that. and i think it was really important. i will say very contentious issue. we were there on immigration. trying to help. the very contentious issue on undocumented health care which again, i think is a you human right. it makes economic sense as well as more sense to deliver it.

but the republicans weren't going to give it. the republican leadership understood that they weren't going to be able to get the votes. i will say this, in minnesota, in minnesota, at least several approached it with compassion and i would argue that's why we still have children staying on it. and they conceded that new children could come on. which i thought was a big concession because their whole argument was this is a magnet for illegal immigration with people coming here. and they left in place new children could come. if you are crossing guatemala to save your children, are you going to go where you can do the best. i don't necessarily think you are looking in deciding international falls, minnesota in the winter because we do this. i do think there is an argument to be made people probably think about this. places where i'm not going to be demonized and treeted like a human being. i -- treated like a human being. it's about making yourself

attractive for folks who want to. our argument yesterday was we fully agree with you that we need immigration enforcement. that's why we asked you to pass the bipartisan bill that did it humanely and create add path towards citizenship. instead of going in and taking guarders in off the streets or raiding a school, continue to tell stories about someone who is undocumented creates a horrific crime. i don't think you'll find a single person in america who think that's ok. the problem is federal government's job is to stop that not the states. and by giving people things like health care, we are -- or driver's licenses. i never stood the opposition to this, i'm proud the sheriff's association said, oh, my god -- >> we are going to leave this. continue watching on the c-span now video app live to new york city for we re-marks by israel's ambassador to the u.n. >> good morning.